Law Society's IT review deja vu

Given half the chance, a bureaucracy’s natural inclination is to find things to do.

The Law Society is no exception to this rule and fought long and hard for the right to maintain its position as both trade union and regulator.

Having lost this battle, however, there is a renewed sense of purpose emanating from Chancery Lane. You only have to read Law Society president Fiona Woolf’s blog entries in Legal Village to get a sense of the energising affect of its new-found freedom to act as the profession’s trade union (see first entry, second and third).

Still, it remains early days. A glance at Chancery Lane’s most recent council agenda suggests there is some way to go before the Law Society rids itself of all of its old habits.

It will have come as little surprise to seasoned Law Society watchers when Legal Week reported before Christmas that the society’s latest IT project had run into trouble. Like many public and professional bodies, the society has a long history of pouring money into expensive IT schemes that don’t deliver the goods. Typically, the only people to benefit from these problems are the armies of consultants that are brought in to sort things out.

Sure enough, in his report to February’s council meeting, chief executive Desmond Hudson reveals that two sets of consultants have been hired to help resolve these latest difficulties.

For one of the teams – Cornwell Management – there will be a strong sense of deja vu. Hudson concedes this is the second time Cornwell has worked with the Law Society, having been called in to advise on IT strategy “some years ago”.

“It would seem that few of the recommendations they made and which I understand were adopted by the Society have been implemented,” Hudson reveals.

Cornwell’s brief – which will take eight weeks to complete – is to come up with a fresh set of recommendations. Meanwhile, rumours are yet to be confirmed that the society has called on the services of a third set of consultants to advise it on how to implement the recommendations once they have been adopted.

Do you have past experience of the consultants’ disease? Share your experiences by posting them below (anonymously, if you prefer) or email me at john.malpas@legalweek.com.